Chapter 60：Yumiko's Influence

The Noble Spirit excused himself and vacated the room when the elder from earlier whispered something to him. Now, we were left alone in this spacious hall, with food in front of us. We were told to just relax for now. Even Yumiko told me to wait before we start planning for the attack on the fortress.

He introduced himself as Harlan. Being one of the Noble Spirit elders included in the Council of Twenty, he held considerable power but it's not enough to move the Spiritas on his whim.

Yumiko told me that he's the first Spirit Race she encountered when she was first summoned here. When she showed him her cheat-like ability, he was dumbstruck as if he found a Deity.

And continuing from that, when one of the Spirits let Yumiko borrow its powers, Harlan asked for a spar which resulted in her defeating him easily.

That was her first day here, without even awakening her Spiritual Twin, she defeated a Noble Spirit.

That showed how strong her ability is. After that, Harlan took her in and taught her everything she needed to know about this world. He also sometimes accompanied her while searching for the traces of the Invading World. Since the Spiritas were at war with the Spirit Beasts, more often than not, they'll encounter them instead of what they were searching for.

And that leads to one encounter with the Spirit King. It's intelligent and can communicate with them. Upon seeing Yumiko's ability. It wanted her for itself. As to what will it do to her, it never specified. Since then, the Spirit Beasts were actively searching for her and once they saw her, the Spirit King would immediately be informed and an hour at best, she had to move away from that area.

When Yumiko asked why Harlan chose to help a stranger and clearly not someone from this world, he only told her that she reminded him of his daughter who passed away a year before Yumiko was first summoned here. And for three years, he's always been good to her that's why she could comfortably call him Uncle.

"Let's go. I'll give you a tour."

After a while, Yumiko stood up and urged me to go outside. Well, there's nothing to do here except to eat so I guess I'll take a look at what place we are in.

From the shrine from earlier up to here, we only descended a flight of stairs. Looks like the shrine was private property and this spacious hall is a part of a huge mansion which I assume Harlan owned. There were decorations that are foreign to me but the overall atmosphere of this hall was for receiving a guest.

Leaving that spacious hall, we exit from another entrance. What lay before us was undoubtedly a bustling city.

With houses and other structures so close to each other, the streets were cramped. The building designs were reminiscent of old Japanese houses.

Don't tell me this is also Yumiko's influence? Ah. Since this is probably Harlan's domain, his doting on her also influenced the people under him.

Now it's like I traveled back to ancient Japan. Even the clothes they wore were Yukata. The only thing different from it was that they don't look like Japanese at all.

"Welcome to Edo City, Daisuke-kun."

Yumiko was all smiles as she introduced the city to me.

"I don't need to guess that this is all your idea, right?"

I showed her an amazed expression before saying those words.

She didn't answer and just giggled cutely while she proudly puffed out her chest. With how revealing her outfit is, I could somehow glimpse what's hidden behind it. When she noticed my gaze directed to it, she immediately covered herself up and turned her body in the opposite direction.

"Err. In any case, I like what you did here. It's like we only time-traveled back to the Edo Period."

I tried to shift our conversation to escape from the awkwardness.

"R-right. I bugged Uncle to do this. There's also a hot spring place somewhere in this city and also inside that mansion."

She rode it and shifted the topic to the place most of us really wanted to have in another world.

So there's a hot spring there, I want to dip myself in it sometimes.

"That's amazing! We could dip ourselves in there after our quest to close the breach."

I already finished my sentence before I noticed that my wording might be misinterpreted by Yumiko.

"W-we can't go in together..."

Like I thought. Her thoughts immediately registered that idea. We just managed to get out of awkwardness but we dived straight to a deeper one.

"Ah! No. I didn't mean it like that. I mean, we can alternately take a dip in the hot spring."

"Eh? Don't worry Daisuke-kun, I had them build two of them for different genders."

As if realizing something she forgot, Yumiko raised her voice as she revealed that there's not only one hot spring in there.

Thanks to that, things went back to normal for us.

Our tour then started from visiting shops and places from the Edo Period that she revived here. And because she's widely known here, anywhere we go, people flocked towards us, greeting the Priestess.

Yumiko acted like an actual priestess, like giving blessings to the children. Well, with her looks and demeanor, she's passable to pose as one.

They're all respectful to her as if she's a Noble Spirit. Ah. No, they probably already thought of her as someone higher than that.

Even if the other members of the Council of Twenty weren't agreeable to her, they wouldn't make a move to turn her into an enemy.

Three years of traveling back and forth from our world to here, they probably knew her real prowess.

Even the Spirit King was continuously evaded by her.

"Ah. Priestess, you're back!"

A stall owner selling some sort of soba noodles called out to us when he saw Yumiko approaching.

"Yes! Give us two Soba and a plate of tempura, please."

Yumiko ordered like she's a regular here and yeah, their soba noodles also look like it came from an ancient period, it doesn't have a lot of garnish just that the soup was too mouth-watering. It's clear but the taste will really make you travel back to those ancient times we only heard from history teachers.

We had just eaten at that mansion but seeing a familiar dish here tickled my appetite.

We spent almost the whole day touring the city before we went back to Harlan's mansion. Only his mansion has a different style. It's probably the normal architecture of this world.

Yumiko was too happy showing me everything she accomplished for this city during the three years she was here.

True that this place was often attacked but with the number of Spirit Race living here, it's almost impossible to breach the gate and enter the city.

With the first day ending like this, the elderly Spirit Race from earlier led me to a room away from Yumiko.

Well, she's special while I am someone they only just met so this is fine. Now that I'm alone, I could now start this Spirit Cultivation.

I already felt the inherent energy ever-present on our surroundings and just by willing it, I could control it just the same.

I sat cross-legged above my bed and started concentrating.

Soon enough, a wave of Spirit Energy gathered before me.

The Spiritual Twin that was curled up on one corner of my mind materialized in front of me.

It's still small but with the amount of Spirit Energy pouring into it, it slowly grew until it reached my size.

It's like looking at my own clone. I looked at my system and saw that the line that says Pre-Natal already sat at 99%.

It only needed to open its eyes to fully awaken and by then, I will step into being a Natal Spirit. Establishing my first connection to the Spirit Ocean and most possibly the World's Will.